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硅谷企业采用科技手段，用不锈钢容器三天速成威士忌，某些产品甚至已在赛事中取得较高排名。速成威士忌市场广大，但不会保有木桶威士忌的浪漫情怀。
全文共852个词，By John Gapper
When a bottle of Yamazaki 55-year-old whisky sold for a record $795,000 at an auction in Hong Kong in August it was proof of two things. The whisky, matured in Japanese oak casks that can impart vanilla, honey and floral notes and a hint of burning incense, is a collector’s item. Also, they do not make it any more.
去年8月，一瓶山崎(Yamazaki)55年威士忌在香港的一场拍卖中以795,000美元的创纪录价格售出。这个例子证明了以下两件事：在能够带来香草、蜂蜜和花香调以及一丝线香燃烧气味的日本橡木桶中熟成的威士忌是属于收藏家的珍品，而且这类威士忌现已不再生产。
The spiralling prices of top Japanese whiskies shows one of the biggest problems facing any spirits maker: if it underestimates the future demand for a product it will only bottle and sell decades in the future, it cannot go back and increase the supply. Many wish they had more of their prized liquors to offer, but it is too late now.
螺旋上升的日本顶级威士忌价格反映出了任何烈酒生产商都面临的一个最大问题：如果厂家低估了未来市场对某款要在几十年以后才装瓶出售产品的需求，厂家无法回到过去，增加产品供给。很多厂商都希望自己能够提供更多的珍贵酒类，但现在再开始生产已经太晚了。
You might think that distillers would be grateful to anyone who solved this conundrum, but not the Scotch Whisky Association. Its reaction this week to Bespoken Spirits, a Silicon Valley venture that can make spirits in days rather than decades, was brusque. It threatened to “take action all over the world” to stop Bespoken circumventing the rule that Scotch must age in oak casks for at least three years.
你或许认为，酿酒厂将对任何能够解决这一难题的人感恩戴德，但苏格兰威士忌协会(Scotch Whisky Association)并没有这样。该协会不久前对硅谷风投企业Bespoken Spirits的反应颇为直接，后者能在几天之内就生产出烈酒，而不用花费几十年的漫长时间。苏格兰威士忌协会威胁称，“将在全球范围内采取行动”，以阻止Bespoken绕过苏格兰威士忌必须在橡木桶中熟成至少三年的行业规则。
Distillers of Scotch single malts such as Macallan and Glenlivet should pour themselves a dram and relax. When Bespoken promises to replicate ageing in oak barrels with a “designed, engineered and precisely controlled” process in a stainless steel drum, it does not make the heart sing. The best whiskies are made in a slow, inefficient and archaic way, and that is fine.
麦卡伦(Macallan)和格兰利(Glenlivet)等生产单一麦芽苏格兰威士忌的酿酒商可以给自己倒上一小杯放松一下。当Bespoken宣称可以通过一个“专门设计打造并被精细控制”的流程在一个不锈钢容器中复制在橡木桶中的熟成过程时，并没有在市场上引发欢呼。最好的威士忌是通过一种缓慢、低效率而又古老原始的方式生产出来的，市场已经接受了这一点。
In one experiment, fans of Coca-Cola and Pepsi lay in an MRI scanner to have their brains observed while drinking soda, both with and without knowing the brand. Not only did they enjoy their favourite brand more when told they were drinking it, but their brains responded differently. Knowing that it was the real thing literally made Coke taste better.
在一个试验中，可口可乐(Coca-Cola)和百事可乐(Pepsi)的爱好者们躺在核磁共振扫描仪中，以观察他们在喝汽水时的脑部活动，实验包括事先知道和不知道汽水品牌的两种情境。当他们被告知正在喝的是他们喜欢的品牌时，他们不仅更加享受，而且他们的大脑也做出了不同反应。知道所喝的正是自己喜欢的品牌让他们感到可乐的味道变得更好。
The psychological effect is even more powerful when drinking a whisky with a distinguished heritage — in the case of Suntory’s Yamazaki 55, aged both in 1960 Mizunara oak and white oak casks from 1964, the year of the first Tokyo Olympics. As the study noted, “many levels of social, cognitive and cultural influences combine to produce behavioural preferences for food and drink”— not just their overt flavours.
在品尝一款具有杰出文化传承的威士忌时，这种心理效应更加强大——以三得利(Suntory)的山崎55年威士忌为例——这款威士忌于1960年在水楢木桶中熟成，自1964年以后转入美洲白橡木桶熟成，那一年适逢东京首次举办奥运会。正如上文研究所指出的，“很多层面的社会、认知、文化影响因素作用在一起，导致了人们对食品和饮料的行为偏好”——而不仅与事物可被直接感知的味道有关。
The way in which whisky ages contributes significantly to its appeal, and how satisfying it is to imbibe. That is why ads for Jack Daniel’s whiskey feature tributes to its 154-year-old distillery in Lynchburg, Tennessee, just as a Yamazaki whisky connoisseur will savour the history of its distillery near Osaka in its single malts. Steel drums and chemistry lack this old romance.
威士忌熟成的方式显著增加了它的吸引力，并大大提升了人们在小酌威士忌时的满足感。正因为此，杰克丹尼(Jack Daniel's)的威士忌广告才会突出介绍其位于田纳西州林奇堡(Lynchburg)拥有154年历史的酿酒厂，山崎威士忌的鉴赏家也会在品尝山崎单一麦芽威士忌时回味该品牌位于大阪附近酿酒厂的历史。不锈钢容器和单纯的化学反应缺乏这种古老的浪漫。
Stu Aaron, co-founder of Bespoken Spirits, observes that whisky ageing methods are “trial and error, not repeatable and worst of all, slow”. Indeed they are. Staves of oak are toasted in dry heat, or charred with flames, to trigger reactions when the barrels are filled with spirits and left to mature on warehouse racks. Every few years, some are moved from one rack to another.
Bespoken联合创始人斯图·亚伦(Stu Aaron)指出，威士忌的熟成方式是“在尝试中纠错，不具有可重复性，并且最糟糕的是速度缓慢。”确实如此。橡木板经过干热烘烤，或经明火烤焦，以便橡木桶在装上酒品摆上仓库货架熟成时能够产生化学反应。每隔几年，部分装酒的橡木桶会从一个货架移到另一个货架。
What occurs inside the casks is mysterious: two filled at the same time with the same spirit may end up tasting different. But compounds called esters and aldehydes gradually leach from the wood and form in the barrel to give the whisky its distinctive notes — from the sweet and fruity to the smoky. The latter is characteristic of Mizunara oak, which is itself rare and prized.
在橡木桶中发生的事情非常神秘：两个橡木桶在同样时间装入同样酒浆，而最终成品的味道可能并不相同。名为酯和醛的化合物会从木质中逐渐浸析出来并在橡木桶中生成，给威士忌带来独一无二的味道——例如香甜味、果味以及烟熏味。烟熏味是水楢木桶的特色，这种橡木桶本身就很稀少且价格不菲。
Bespoken is among a group of “rapid ageing” pioneers, including Lost Spirits and Cleveland Whiskey, that use technology to produce a similar result much quicker and cheaper. In Bespoken’s case, it adds between 300 and 600 tiny chips of wood, some charred and toasted, to a 1,000-litre drum, and heats the spirits to impart flavour.
Bespoken是积极探索“快速熟成”的先驱之一，这一领域的企业还包括Lost Spirits和Cleveland Whiskey，它们通过科技手段以更快的速度和更低的成本实现与传统方式相似的熟成效果。以Bespoken为例，该公司将300至600片经过烘烤或烤焦的小木片装入一个容量为1000升的容器中，然后加热酒品使其吸收木片的味道。
That is not going to displace Yamazaki in a hurry (although one of Bespoken’s three-day-old whiskies was placed higher than a Kurayoshi 18-year-old malt in a San Francisco spirits competition in March). “Whisky tech” has other uses, like laboratory-grown diamonds that are chemically the same as deep-mined gems, but lack their mystique.
这种模式在短期内不会取代山崎（不过Bespoken一款三天熟成的威士忌在今年三月旧金山举行的一场酒类竞赛中赢得了比仓吉18年熟成纯麦威士忌更高的排名）。“威士忌酿造科技”还有其他用途，例如实验室人工合成钻石——它们在化学成分上与诞生在矿脉深处的宝石完全相同，但缺乏后者的神秘感。
Although it makes spirits under its own brand, Bespoken’s real business is behind the scenes, offering others “maturation as a service”. Are you a distiller with a product that does not taste as hoped, despite having spent years in casks? It can be tweaked in days. Are you a supermarket wanting to offer a white label whisky on shelves alongside well-known brands? It can be manufactured efficiently.
虽然Bespoken生产自有品牌的酒品，其真正的业务隐身幕后，为其他公司提供“熟成服务”。如果你是一家酿酒商，有一款酒品在橡木桶中已经熟成多年，但味道依然不达预期——这种情况在几天之内就能被调整过来。如果你是一家超市，希望在知名威士忌品牌的货架上并排摆上一款白标威士忌——符合你要求的产品能以经济高效的方式被生产出来。
It is a big industry, and barrel ageing of spirits already conceals a multitude of sins. Despite the astonishing prices paid for top Japanese whiskies, its domestic regulations are lax and some of the cheap stuff is made with molasses. There is a market for any stiff drink that is affordable and enjoyable.
这是一个体量庞大的产业，而以木桶熟成酒品本身也存在很多原罪。虽然日本顶级威士忌的价格高得令人咋舌，日本国内对其的监管却相当宽松，某些低档廉价日本威士忌甚至是用糖蜜生产的。任何价格适中、品质宜人的烈性酒都有市场空间。
But you get what you pay for, and those buying decades-old whisky, aged in sherry or bourbon casks, are purchasing — and tasting — more than chemicals in dark spirits. They are consuming the fragrance of the past and something ineffable that they do not even grasp, but still appreciate. Technology does not taste like that.
但一分钱一分货，那些购买在雪莉桶或波本桶中熟成数十年威士忌的人，他们所购买和品尝的不仅仅是深色烈酒中的化学物质。他们消费的是往日的余香，以及某种无法言喻的东西，他们甚至无法真正领会那是什么，但依然视若珍宝。科技不具备这种独特的味道。
本文发布于FT中文网，英文原题为 Technology cannot distil whisky’s old romance